City and state leaders gathered to watch as demolition of the timeworn buildings began.

It has been a long time coming. Dozens of acres at Reading and Seymour in Bond Hill currently appear blighted and abandoned.

With an infusion of more than $6 million from Cincinnati’s Focus 52 fund, The Port Authority, which bought the property last month, plans to attract a private developer for a $75 million mix of office, retail, residential and perhaps a hotel.

“The most significant difference here is that we’re starting over and that’s what nobody has done before”, according to Laura Brunner of the Port.

She says there will be roughly 60,000 square feet of retail, not the 400,000 square feet that did not survive the changing habits of shoppers over the years.

More than a decade ago, the Allen Temple Real Estate Foundation purchased the old mall and rechristened it in honor of Pastor Donald Jordan.

The place has had more lives than a cat and at one time was the province of Eddie DeBartolo, then the largest shopping mall magnate in the country.

Originally, it was Swifton Commons, among the very first open-court urban malls in the country. That was back in 1956 and in the ensuing years, it became a very hip and happening scene.

But, urban flight led to neighborhood blight and the once-active hub rusted and decayed and ultimately stood as a mostly-empty eyesore.

The current plan is to transform the space into a mixed-use community focal point.It is geographically well-positioned in Bond Hill. There are nine other neighborhoods within five miles of the site.

There is also $4 billion worth of payroll within a two-mile radius.

“We actually need to capture some of that and have them spend some of that money here”, said Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls. “What we’ve found is that when there’s nothing for people to spend their money on, they don’t spend it. And so, we’re going to create a place where people want to live, work, play.”

It’ll take a couple of days for all of the big, blue sign at Reading and Seymour to come down. But, it was among the first to be hit with the hard reality of a wrecking crew.

The long-vacant Burger King restaurant was also splintered today.

They aren’t just tinkering around the edges. The entire complex that is sandwiched between the Allen Temple and the Community Action Agency will be torn down.

Echoes of the “It’s Commonly Jazz” concerts are still there in the wind. The Comisars had a restaurant on the site decades ago. There was a Kroger and a Kresge and the old Rollman’s Department Store.

State Representative Alicia Reece mused about coming there in her youth for Famous Amos Cookies.

As one reflects on it now, the heyday of Swifton passed swiftly.

“This is an area that has been desolate for a long time”, City Manager Milton Dohoney told WLWT News 5. “So you could say, well, let’s just not do anything and see if somebody comes along at some point and does something. Sometimes the city has to step up and stimulate growth.”

That’s what got underway today in an effort to reclaim the potential of prime property and help galvanize Bond Hill’s growth.

They aren’t sure what they’ll call it yet. If you have a suggestion, they’ll take all comers.